The Decolonial Initiative on Migration of Objects and People at Brown is one of the sponsors for a new Initiative called “Decolonize Hellas,” aimed at re-examining the place of modern Greece in relation to the geographies and genealogies of European colonialism. Other faculty from Brown are also sponsors/collaborators in this project. As they state “To decolonize Hellas means to expose the colonial genealogies that fuel phenomena of orientalism, balkanism, xenophobia, racism and sexism articulated in its name”. The Initiative stresses that the histories, reformulations and deployments of the concept of Hellas are entangled with the history of the world as a whole.
From November 4th-7th, they are holding their hybrid symposium entitled “Decolonizing Hellas: Imperial Pasts, Contested Presents, Emancipated Futures, 1821-2021:”
From the symposium program: The initiative dëcoloиıze hellάş invites you to its first international hybrid nomadic symposium “Decolonizing Hellas: Imperial Pasts, Contested Presents, Emancipated Futures, 1821-2021.”
Online and in situ, at Industrial Park PLYFA, Koritsas 39 in Votanikos, Athens from 4 to 7 November 2021.
Τhe bicentennial of the Greek Revolution coincides with contemporary world revolts and renewed struggles against the colonial legacies of white supremacy, nationalisms and racial capitalism. Inspired by these struggles, the initiative Decolonize Hellas prompts an urgent (re)viewing of the place of modern Greece in relation to geographies and genealogies of European colonialism. To decolonize Hellas means to expose the colonial genealogies that fuel phenomena of orientalism, balkanism, xenophobia, racism and sexism articulated in its name.
Our first symposium “Decolonizing Hellas: Imperial Pasts, Contested Presents, Emancipated Futures 1821-2021” brings together researchers, artists, activists, journalists, and scholars to reflect on topics such as: colonial museum practices, the relations between race, colonialism and revolution, migration, diaspora and settler colonialism, political identity-building processes, peacemaking as colonial technology, the decolonization of Cyprus, sea cosmopolitanism and labor relations, epistemicide and cosmopolitics, decolonial feminist methodologies, among many others.
Through various means – panels, dialogues and interviews, workshops, artistic events, a student assembly from three universities of the Greek periphery (Universities of Ioannina, Thessaly and Macedonia), anti-tours on Ottoman Acropolis, the city of Athens and “unconventional” seas – we aspire to engage with a broad audience and reflect on our largely silenced imperial pasts, our troubled times marked by capitalist exploitation, racial and gender violence, xenophobia and white supremacy nostalgia and to open pathways toward more inhabitable and inclusive futures.
Keynote speakers:
Dušan I. Bjelić, Julian Go, Mahmood Mamdani, Gina Athena Ulysse, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Ann Stoler
The dëcoloиıze hellάş collective:
Nikolas Kosmatopoulos (American University of Beirut)
Despina Lalaki (The City University of New York – CUNY)
Penelope Papailias (University of Thessaly)
Sissie Theodosiou (University of Ioannina)
Fotini Tsibiridou (University of Macedonia)
The symposium channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn1oHOHQ_SgyT3w0Reidwmg
The symposium program: https://decolonizehellas.org/en/program/
Contact Info
www.decolonizehellas.org
decolonizehellas@gmail.com
